In a way the map on this page lets
us see Caersws at two different years on the
same map!
It is a small part of a larger map made by the surveyors of the Ordnance
Survey in 1836 and was on sale in
bookshops. When the railways opened in the late
1850s and 1860s the Ordnance Survey simply added the line to
the earlier map.

The
map shows us that transport links
have always been imortant to Caersws. The village was first established
in Roman times where two routes met and there was a crossing over the river.
(You can see the outline of the Roman settlement just to the right of the
railway on the map)
These two routes were - the road down
the Severn valley, and the route up through the hills to the North West
through Carno and on to the coast. At
the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria these two routes had turnpike
roads on them. (See the Llanidloes transport
pages for more detail). From the middle of her reign they had railway
lines built along them.